Text Size

-

+

reset

Yet, Abromaitis is among the hundreds of thousands of artists, musicians, dancers, actors and filmmakers around the country who especially stand to gain under Obamacare, either through the plans and premium subsidies available on its new insurance exchanges or from the plans employers must start offering.

Typically a well-educated but lower-earning demographic — whose members are self-employed more often than not — these Americans have frequently struggled to buy insurance on their own. Some were able to afford union plans, but others paid for costly coverage on the individual market or went without it despite the risk.

A survey last year by The Actors Fund found that 43 percent of individuals working in the visual and performing arts lacked coverage, more than double the national uninsured rate. More than a third of those who had coverage said they got it on the individual market, compared with the 6 percent of Americans generally who turn there for health insurance.

Many are now flocking to Obamacare’s federal- and state-run exchanges, hoping for a way to get covered without breaking the bank. They’re finding both good and bad: more affordable plans but sometimes narrow provider networks and high deductibles.

Abromaitis, who for about a decade has been paying roughly $500 a month for a plan through AARP, is waiting to hear on her application with Maryland’s health exchange. She says she was told a federal subsidy could cut her premium in half. Overall, she’s thrilled by the options the health care law offers her and fellow artists. Some are reaping the benefit through the law’s Medicaid expansion.

“The people who need health insurance the most are the people least able to afford it,” Abromaitis said. “I might sell an individual piece [of art], which looks like a lot of money, but when you figure out hourly what I make, it’s about minimum wage.”

The Actors Fund’s Artists Health Insurance Resource Center is one organization that has taken a central role in helping sign up the people it serves. Even before the Affordable Care Act passed in 2010, the center had health insurance guides and a health clinic. When the ACA became law, it applied to be an Obamacare navigator and received two grants to assist with enrollment efforts in New York City.

The reception has been “enthusiastic,” said Renata Marinaro, its Eastern Region director of health services. Many people are qualifying for the premium tax credits or expanded Medicaid. “The law is really designed exactly for the kind of people who are in the arts and entertainment community,” she said.

The law’s employer mandate won’t affect artists and performers who work independently or for the legions of smaller organizations and businesses that are integral to their professions. But when it takes effect in phases starting next year, the mandate will provide many in film and theater with coverage via production companies that have the equivalent of at least 50 full-time workers.

About 60 percent of the entertainment industry is already unionized with health plans, and the new employer requirements will affect most of the rest — more than 100,000 workers, according to Entertainment Partners, which does payroll services.

Complicated compliance issues already have emerged because of the erratic hours and intermittent schedules that actors and production crews often work, said Joe Scudiero, EP’s chief labor counsel. Figuring out who qualifies for benefits and helping companies estimate how long they’ll employ a given worker are major challenges, he said. Despite pleas from the industry, the Treasury Department hasn’t given any special carve-outs or exemptions.

“A production worker can work for five to 10 different employers per year,” Scudiero explained. “And many times the employer doesn’t know at the time of hire how long the worker will be engaged on a project.”

Getting coverage through an Obamacare exchange isn’t without its own challenges, though, as Virginia composer and musician Andy Zipf has learned.

Zipf shopped on HealthCare.gov and learned that he and his wife qualify for a premium subsidy, which would bring the cost of a silver-level plan to about what they’re paying now for coverage on their own. But the couple are sticking with their current policy until it expires in November. They’re worried about finding doctors who will take the Obamacare plan.

“We went on our insurance site and looked at the doctors that were listed, and we called several of them. Some have said that they weren’t sure they were accepting it or that they were not,” Zipf said. “If we can’t get a clear answer, we need to stay with the coverage we have.”